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Israel Folau set to return to rugby after signing with Japanese club

Israel Folau

Controversial ex-Wallabies star Israel Folau is set to return to rugby union after signing with Japanese club NTT Communications Shining Arcs.

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The Top League side announced Folau as one of six new player signings, and one new staff signing, ahead of the revamped 2022 season on Monday.

The acquisition of Folau comes shortly after the code-hopping star was granted a release from French rugby league club Catalans Dragons to play for the Southport Tigers in the amateur Gold Coast Rugby League Premiership.

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Ian Foster on what can be learned from All Blacks’ 102-0 win over Tonga

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Ian Foster on what can be learned from All Blacks’ 102-0 win over Tonga

Folau has been playing in his second rugby league stint since he was was sacked by Rugby Australia [RA] in 2019 over social media posts that were deemed discriminatory towards the LBGTQ+ community.

The 32-year-old’s high-profile dismissal from RA’s payroll was monumental at the time given his status within Australian rugby circles.

A veteran of 73 test caps and a Super Rugby title-winner with the Waratahs, Folau will provide NTT Communications with a wealth of experience, but his signing is also likely to bring with it plenty of scrutiny and backlash.

Formerly regarded as one of the game’s best fullbacks, Folau will be joined at NTT Communications by a raft of other new faces, including Blues pivot Otere Black.

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Blues head coach Leon MacDonald confirmed the 26-year-old first-five would leave the franchise to join a club in Japan shortly after the Blues claimed the inaugural Super Rugby Trans-Tasman title last month.

NTT Communications have now confirmed they are the club that Black, who starred in his final appearance for the Maori All Blacks during their 38-21 victory over Manu Samoa in Auckland on Saturday, has signed with.

The other new players signed by NTT Communications ahead of the 2022 season are Japan international James Moore, NEC Green Rockets lock Sam Jeffries, and Coca-Cola Red Sparks duo Brody Macaskill and Tone Tukufuka.

The Ichikawa-based side have also confirmed former Waratahs head coach Rob Penney will return to the club as director of rugby.

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Penney was fired by the Waratahs just six rounds into the second year of his three-season deal with the New South Wales franchise following their winless start to the campaign.

Despite Penney’s sacking early in the season, the Waratahs went on to lose all 13 of their matches this year, with many leading rugby figures criticising the franchise for using Penney as a scapegoat for the organisation’s shortcomings.

Having previously been the head coach of Muster, Canterbury, the New Zealand U20 side and the Shining Arcs, Penney will have plenty to offer in his new role in Japan.

NTT Communications finished fourth in their conference during the 2021 Top League season before being eliminated from the competition by the Canon Eagles in the second round of the play-offs.

The Top League is set to undergo a significant revamp for the 2022 season as it prepares to become a three-tiered, fully professional competition.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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